Ever since the language puzzle in Tunic that got me to fill up 6 pocket sized pages of notes over multiple days while trying to puzzle it out as I tried to and, eventually, succeeded at translating the in-game “paper” manual, I’ve had a craving for games that force you to pull out a notebook and take notes/puzzle things out as part of the actual meta-gameplay mechanics, because the game doesn’t just do that thinking for you.
What other games are like this, even a little bit, that you’ve loved?
And to be clear, I don’t mean things like TTRPGs which are just inherently on paper. Those are cool and all, but aren’t this thing. I want things that force me to engage my thinking beyond what the inputs of a controller and medium of a screen and my short-term memory alone can do for me.
I did this for the Witness - it really helped to think out some of the puzzles if scribbled possible solutions down. Oh and Obra Dinn to an extent - mostly things like ‘I saw this guy hanging around in this memory - could he be X’?
Seconding the witness
Yeah, I did this for the witness sort of. If I got stuck on a puzzle and was finishing up a session, I’d take a photo and then draw over the top of it as I went about my day, so I’d come back to the game with a solution.
Myst and its mainline sequels, especially Riven will generally require pen and paper for almost all puzzles (except for the godforsaken train tunnel puzzle). Cyan has also made Obduction which is very similar and I ended up using pen and paper to take notes for. Quern: Undying Thoughts is a Myst-inspired game that is also like this.
the Submachine series by artist Mateusz Skutnik also benefits from using pen and paper, although a few of the games include virtual notes as well. The later games in the series are more open ended and require you memorizing coordinates if you don’t take notes. It also helps to write down which items you collect (potentially) go to which screens. It’s a 2D point and click adventure game series.
I came here to say “Any Cyan game”, Riven i think was definitely one of the most complex and needed the most notes. They’ve recently released Firmament and Riven remake is on its way too.
Just checked out firmament. Looks very cool.
Totally forgot firmament was coming out!! Riven is a really important game for me so I’m super hyped for a remake
Myst. Surprised this wasn’t mentioned yet.
Welcome to my favorite genre of game!
As they’ve already been mentioned before, I will second both La-Mulana (and though not mentioned, it’s sequel), and FEZ.
The Witness didn’t make me break out Pen and Paper, but it was definitely one I had to give my brain a break and come back to to look at things from a fresh angle.
Now for some previously unmentioned finds where your attention to detail will be rewarded. Not all will require notebooks. But there puzzles hidden in all of them.
Environmental Station Alpha is a Metroidvania.
Full Metal Furies is a side-scrolling beat-em up.
INSIDE is a side-scrolling platformer.
Inscryption is a deck-builder / puzzle room.
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes has an entire manual that you should print out and put in a binder, and your manual monkeys will absolutely need pen and paper to help you defuse the bomb in front of you
My best friend and I loved playing this together!! So much fun!
Definitely Fez when you start looking beyond the golden cubes.
Only 2 games that really made me break out pen and paper.
Myst 3 and Final Fantasy XII (The Great Crystal).
Yes, the crystal! I still have the scribbles of my map I drew back then. I loved the feeling to get “lost” in there.
I just got my notes out a month ago because someone was sharing their FFXII collection. It has so many switch names, one-way markings, and strike-throughs where I messed up and realized I went in a big circle. I’m so glad I didn’t use a guide for that.
No notepad, but an excellent explorative puzzle that had me making and remaking theories the whole time: outer wilds. Several people also mentioned obra dinn
Subnautica forced me to draw a proper map. It was interesting.
Maybe not my favorite game but one of the very few games I truly felt required pen and paper were some of the old Might & Magic games - most notably I think of the first 3 games.
Those were first person dungeon crawling RPGs. They didn’t have, what later became termed “automaps”, but what is now just a in-game map. So if you wanted to look at a map you had to either buy real life books they sold called Cluebooks which had maps printed in them or you had to pull out the graphing paper and get to drawing.
It wasn’t just a limitation of the time, the games back then honestly treated it like a feature. I think it was in M&M3 that you could eventually cast the spell “Wizard Eye” and the entire point of the spell was to present to you a minimap of the surrounding area. NPCs and quests didn’t put icons on your map (there was no map), you were given directions and had to figure out how to get there.
Since you already said Tunic, I’ll throw out Riven: The Sequel to Myst
I played it several months ago for the first time and my desk was completely littered with sticky notes, most of which would have been incomprehensible to anyone else
Original Metroid.
The new System Shock remake. I needed to draw a map of all elevator connections because Citadel station is extremely convoluted. Also, you get codes (or parts of codes) and instructions here an there, that you’ll need later on.
Secret World was a great modern horror MMO for a while there, and the investigation missions had some really complex puzzles that expected you do go online and do research into Egyptian dynasties and King James bible quotes and all kinds of other stuff. They dumbed down the amazing build system the game started with, but the core story skills still all be worth playing.
Oh, I’d forgotten about Secret World! It looks like it’s been updated to Secret World Legends – might have to give that a try.
It happened only one time, when playing Final Fantasy X, I really wanted to know what they were saying before finding all the Al Bhed primers. So I found a few NPC, took notepad and using a few letters found in the beginning, I was guessing what they were saying. It was quite satisfying and helpful, albeit easy.
This, and for the various secret passwords scattered about. “Kilika and Bikanel join as one”.
I did that at one point too. There was a newspaper that I used to get that had a game that did the same thing. But I can’t seem to find it now.
